2007 November 15

This issue sponsored by

Professional Surveyor Magazine

Editor's Introduction
Profile of a Photogrammetry Company — Part 2
Briefly Noted

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Editor's Introduction

This week, I bring you the second part of the profile of 3Di West, a photogrammetry, mapping, and GIS company. Plus, two short news items and 27 press releases.

GIS Day in Eugene, Oregon

Yesterday, I hope you all had a good GIS Day! I visited a display of maps and aerial photographs by the City of Eugene, Oregon, and an event at the University of Oregon, which included a map competition and a few short presentations.

— Matteo Luccio

Profile of a Photogrammetry Company — Part 2

Last week, I featured the first part of my profile of the photogrammetry, mapping, and GIS company 3Di West. Here, now, are some of the highlights of my conversations with four of the company's managers: Lynn Engel (photogrammetry), Amy Perdue (orthophotos), Luke Savage (GIS), and Leanne Mitchell (project delivery).

Photogrammetry

Lynn Engel describes his job as "a juggling act, trying to get everything prepared and out on some kind of a schedule." In preparation for flying a job, 3Di West contracts with a surveyor, who establishes coordinates and puts out premarks—big white targets of some kind—that can be later identified on the photography. In good weather, photography can be flown within a week of when the targets are in place. Some surveyors will place the targets first, so that the flight company can get started, and then, after it has flown the job, they do their groundwork to figure out the targets' exact coordinates. "That speeds up this whole process," Engel says, "because now, while the flight is being taken and then the film is developed and scanned, the surveyor is out doing his groundwork."

Orthophotography

The orthophotography department takes the Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) and other planimetric files created by the compilers and—using such elements as break lines, layers, mask points, elevations, and road edges—ties them together geographically with the aerial photography to make photomosaics.

GIS

For years, 3Di West translated data into GIS formats, using ArcGIS, and massaged it for GIS deliveries. A couple of years ago, the company started a GIS department. Besides in-house dataset translation work, it does external consulting work for a variety of GIS projects. In addition to Luke Savage, it has a GIS technician in Eugene and a GIS analyst in Boise, Idaho.

Project Delivery

"A happy client is a good client," says Leanne Mitchell. "We're trying to make sure that we have fewer loose ends when a project is finished. We've always tried to do that, but a lot of work has come through this office in the last few years, so we've had to change our management design a little bit." Sometimes she is on projects from the very beginning, so as to understand the requirements. "My duties involve more than just final delivery. I do proposals, make estimates on projects, talk to clients."

Briefly Noted

According to today's New York Times, the Los Angeles Police Department has shelved a plan to map out Muslim communities, a proposal that civil rights groups had sharply criticized as racial and religious profiling. Under the plan, the LAPD's counterterrorism bureau would have identified Muslim enclaves to determine which might be likely to become isolated and susceptible to ''violent, ideologically-based extremism.'' Using data that would have been assembled by the University of Southern California's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis, the project would have examined the history, demographics, language, culture, ethnic breakdown, socioeconomic status, and social interactions of the estimated 500,000 Muslims in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside counties.